Hippy's Bleeder Chain: Octogenarian hits road, sells son's invention
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By SETH TUPPER
Published 07/11/2009, The Daily Republic
Eugene “Hit” Mayer loves his children, fishing and selling. At an age when most men are winding down, he’s combining all three of those loves into a new passion: Selling a fishing lure invented by his son. You could say he’s caught his second — or third or fourth — wind. “I’m kinda tickled,” said Hit, an 84- year-old widower from Mitchell. “It gives me something to do, because I’m all by myself. And I’m doing it to help my son more than anything.”
Hit’s 45-year-old son, Jim, of Lincoln, Neb., is a physician and angler. Because of those dual identities, he has always been keenly aware of the role that blood and simulated blood can play in luring fish to a hook. Through the years, he’s noticed and tried many commercial bait products designed to emulate wounded and bleeding prey, but he never saw anything that accurately mimicked the way blood drips out in ball-like drops. A couple of years ago, Jim’s knowledge of fishing and bleeding — he once worked in an emergency room — converged to produce a breakthrough idea. He was pulling on a Venetian-blind cord consisting of tiny, stainless-steel balls when he realized that those balls could be coated red and used to mimic blood droplets. After experimenting with some prototypes and learning that no patents exist for such a product, he applied for a patent and went into business with his father.
They sell their lures under the name “Hippy’s Bleeder Chain.” Like many fish tales, the story behind the name “Hippy” is hard to pin down. Hit got his nickname in childhood after exhibiting early signs of athletic prowess, and later in life some people started changing “Hit” to “Hippy.” Why? The Mayers say they don’t know. Whatever the origin, the name “Hippy” makes Hippy’s Bleeder Chain uniquely memorable and reflects the relationship that Jim, who was formerly called “Little Hippy,” has with his dad.
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That relationship has been especially close of late. The two men are partners in the company they created to sell Jim’s products, and Hit is serving as the one-man sales department while Jim continues to work as a doctor and create new product lines in his basement workshop. Hit has driven the entire length of the Missouri River within South Dakota and has convinced every bait shop owner along the way — “every place from Yankton to Pollock,” as he put it — to carry Hippy’s Bleeder Chain products. The products are also in some sporting-goods stores, including Cabela’s. “I’ve been in sales for 45 years,” Hit said. “I like to sell, and I can truthfully say that out of the stores that I have gone to, I don’t think there’s been two or three stores that have turned me down.”
Hit is a physically strong man even at 84, and his enthusiasm is unrestrained. So excited is he about his products that he stood for 25 minutes while explaining them to a much younger reporter and photographer, who both sat on his couch. Hit also has a lifetime of experience in business and sales. He “retired” in the 1980s after selling a beer distributorship that he owned for many years, but then got into the jewelry business and ended up owning eight stores. He sold that business, too, and devoted himself mostly to fishing until one fateful day in the fall of 2007. Jim brought some prototypes to South Dakota that day and went fishing with Hit on the Missouri River. Jim used his bleeder chains, and Hit used his own tackle. Jim outfished his dad three-to-one that day, and they began forming plans to manufacture and sell Jim’s lures.
They now have 33 product packages and are hoping to expand into bass and ice-fishing lines. The keys to their early success, Jim said, include the originality of the bleederchain design and the production efforts of Mitchell Manufacturing. “The rest of it’s been legwork from my father, just loading up his truck and peddling the product.”
Success of the shared variety is especially sweet for Hit and Jim, who have been fishing together since Jim was about 5 years old. Jim hopes to grow Mayer Tackle — the company formed to market Hippy’s Bleeder Chain — into a thriving company with multiple product lines and repeat business. Hit is just enjoying the work and the feeling of helping his son. And there’s one other reason Hit, who regularly joins friends for morning coffee, is working so hard. “I got an ego like everybody else,” he said. “I want to go uptown and have the guys say, ‘Well, the darn fool made it work.’ ”